442 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Upon further investigation, and a study of Count Salvadori's 

 descriptions of the Wild Geese in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, 

 vol. xxvii., I was led to infer that the bird might be Anser serri- 

 rostris of Swinhoe, a name copied by Swinhoe from a manuscript 

 left by the late John Gould, who intended to publish this name, 

 but death intervened. I was strengthened in this belief from the 

 fact that the serrations on the lower mandible of my bird were 

 totally distinct in shape to those of A. segetum. However, I 

 could not find any full description of this bird, and, subsequently 

 receiving an invitation from Dr. Bowdler Sharpe to dine with the 

 British Ornithologists' Club at their June meeting, I took my 

 specimen, together with A. rubrirostris, to exhibit before the 

 members. 



Upon comparing my bird with the skins in the National 

 Collection, I found that it was not A. serrirostris ; and further, 

 that there was no specimen in the Museum which would at all 

 agree with my bird, especially as regards shape and colouration 

 of bill. The result was that I could not formally bring the bird 

 under the notice of the Club that evening, and did so incident- 

 ally only, pending a still fuller investigation at the Museum the 

 next day, under the kindly assistance of Mr. Eugene W. Oates 

 and Mr. Stewart Baker. The net result of this examination was 

 simply to confirm my first enquiry : there was no bird like mine 

 in the National Collection, and Mr. Oates intimated that I should 

 be justified in giving the bird a name. This I was unwilling to 

 do until further enquiries had been made, and I had prepared a 

 paper for ' The Zoologist,' pointing out the characters of the bird. 

 In the meantime I continued my investigations, and have now, I 

 think, got to the real root of the subject, and can put a totally 

 different complexion upon it. 



There need be no doubt whatever that my specimen is the 

 Long-billed Carr-lag Goose (Anser paludosus), first described by 

 Strickland in 1858 before the meeting of the British Association 

 at Leeds ; and that Strickland was perfectly justified in describing 

 the bird as a distinct species, there can be no shadow of doubt. 

 It is much to be regretted that his observations did not receive 

 more consideration at the time, as it is this neglect which has led 

 to the bird being almost totally overlooked and forgotten for 

 nearly fifty years. This might not have occurred but for a note 



